Yazidi sex slaves freed from ISIS burn the burqas they were forced to wear

Yazidi sex slaves freed from their ISIS captors have burned the burqas they were forced to wear after fleeing the terror group’s last foothold in Syria.

One woman, named only as Israa, 20, told how she was driven out of the town of Baghouz last week by ISIS fighters before escaping and handing herself over to Kurdish troops.

Freed from the oppressive Islamist regime, she and other Yazidi women lined up in the desert where they stripped off the burqas, piled them up and burned them.

Israa, 20, a Yazidi woman kept as a sex slave by ISIS, fled the terror group’s last stronghold in Syria before handing herself over to Kurdish troops

After being save by the Kurds, she stripped off the burqa that ISIS forced her to wear and burned it, saying: 'I wish I could burn [them] like I burned my clothes'

After being save by the Kurds, she stripped off the burqa that ISIS forced her to wear and burned it, saying: ‘I wish I could burn [them] like I burned my clothes’

In a video posted to social media, Israa said: ‘The first time they made me wear it, I felt like I was being suffocated.

‘It bothered me a lot. I didn’t want to wear it but they wouldn’t let me [take it off]. They said everyone was wearing it. 

‘Every time I was alone I’d take it off. They’d say; “Don’t go outside like this. Don’t appear around men like this.”

‘But every time they’d leave me alone, I’d take it off. Now I’ve arrived and I’ve taken it off and burned it and finished with it, thank God. 

‘I wish I could bring Daesh [ISIS] and burn them like I burned my clothes.’ 

ISIS attacked the Yazidis when they arrived in Sinjar, Iraq, in August 2014 because they view them as devil-worshippers.

While most of the men were slaughtered and buried in mass graves, it is though almost 6,500 women and children were captured and sold into slavery.  

Israa was helped to remove her burqa by female soldiers of the PKK Kurdish fighting units

Israa was helped to remove her burqa by female soldiers of the PKK Kurdish fighting units 

She explained that she felt 'suffocated' by the garment when she was first told to put it on, and removed it whenever she was alone

She explained that she felt ‘suffocated’ by the garment when she was first told to put it on, and removed it whenever she was alone

ISIS views the Yazidis as devil-worshippers, and their warped moral code permits them to sell the women into sexual slavery

ISIS views the Yazidis as devil-worshippers, and their warped moral code permits them to sell the women into sexual slavery

Younger children changed hands for around £400 and were sold to couples who could not have children to be brought up as Muslims.

Older boys were forced to train as fighters – or were sold on as house slaves if they were unfit for the frontline.

Teenage girls and women were sold as sex slaves.

ISIS zealots believe they are free to murder, rape, torture and abuse Yazidi people because they are considered devil worshippers.

Yazidism is an ancient faith that integrates some Islamic beliefs with elements of Zoroastrianism, the ancient Persian religion, and Mithraism, a mysterious religion originating in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Israa had been taken to ISIS's last pocket of territory, around Baghouz in Syria, before being driven out by the terrorists, then escaping them and fleeing to the Kurds

Israa had been taken to ISIS’s last pocket of territory, around Baghouz in Syria, before being driven out by the terrorists, then escaping them and fleeing to the Kurds

An estimated 6,500 Yazidi women and children were sold into slavery after ISIS attacked Sinjar in 2014 while the men were slaughtered and buried in mass graves

An estimated 6,500 Yazidi women and children were sold into slavery after ISIS attacked Sinjar in 2014 while the men were slaughtered and buried in mass graves

Yazidis began to face accusations of devil worship from Muslims in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the Kurds form a major component, are in the midst of a battle to drive ISIS out of Baghouz, which is their last territorial stronghold.

The SDF paused its assault last week in order to allow civilians to flee the area, before resuming airstrikes, artillery bombardments and ground attacks this week.

Since then around 3,000 ISIS fighters have been captured, even as the terror group put out propaganda messages online describing the attacks as a ‘holocaust’.

The message also called on radicals to carry out terror attacks overseas as revenge for their impending defeat in Syria.

ISIS once controlled a swathe of territory stretching from the outskirts of Aleppo in Syria to Baghdad in Iraq, but that has now been reduced to a single town which is about to fall. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk